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Pigeon - Confluence East-West Fork to New Hepco Bidge

Pigeon, North Carolina, US

Confluence East-West Fork to New Hepco Bidge

Usual Difficulty

I-III (for normal flows)

Length

26.7 Miles

Phil on the Hepco

Phil on the HepcoPhoto of Phil U by Keith K taken 04/09/05

Gauge Information

Flow range for best boatability uncertain. Please help your fellow boaters with a comment or report. Gauge (Drainage = 350 sq.mi.) is on this reach (well toward take-out), thus should accurately show actual flow in this reach.

River Description

Carolina Whitewater, B.Benner

StreamTeam Status: Not Verified

Last Updated: 2006-11-04 11:39:44

Editors

Rapid Descriptions

No rapids entered. If you know names, and locations of the rapids please contact and advise the StreamTeam member for this run.

User Comments

Ran Pigeon from 209 bridge to New Hepco bridge. Not any significant rapids before the confluence
with Jonathans Creek, The best combination would be to run Jonathans from the class III down to New
Hepco. 600 cfs would probably be a minimum on the Hepco gauge.

Put in on Jonathans creek behind the fire station, and ran it to the Pigeon and then followed the
Pigeon to near Waterville Lake. Took out at the New Hepco Bridge, Fines Creek Rd. We had 1" of rain
in Maggie Valley the day before, and the USGS Gauge on the Pigeon near Hepco was reading 850 CFS.
Passed a landowner near where the Jonathans Creek gauge near White Oak used to be, she said at one
time they were considering damming Jonathans Creek near the confluence with the Pigeon, (or maybe
the Pigeon itself) so the gauge was for a temporary flow study. Not much on Jonathans, one set of
drops about 1+ miles below I-40 bridge as mentioned by Dave, otherwise nothing even of new school
class II. At the confluence I noticed the water temperature was close to 15° warmer. Several
noteworthy drops that were not listed on the AWA section for the Pigeon E & W Confluence to New
Hepco Bridge. Of course having a good volume of water on the Pigeon, and getting a back ender in a
rather juicy hole affected my rating. I would rate one drop a solid III+ (the surprise hole and
ender). Other than a bit of a hike at the bridge it is an under valued section. We had run a
section of the Pigeon upstream (from confluence of Richland Creek) and became bored, getting out
after a few miles before anything fun started, so I was surprised to find some fun rapids. I hope
someone will run it from NC 209 on down, looked like a good rapid downstream of that bridge where
we got out.